Dr. Lisa Hernandez
Interpreter: Carolina Tamayo
October and March are traditionally set aside to focus on Missions within our global church. However, Missions focus should not just be two months a year. It should be every month, every day. As believers, as Christ-followers, we are commanded to Go and to declare his name among the nations. Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Our mandate is to go to ALL nations. To reach the unreached, not just the un-evangelized or the nonbelievers. We’re not talking about places like here where you can walk into any Walmart and buy a bible or download the app on your phone or where you can readily access a live worship service and sermon through Facebook, we’re talking about people who have absolutely no access to the gospel. And the command is not evangelism, it is not sufficient to say a testimony and hand them a bible and walk away. The command is “make disciples” which means a continued and growing relationship in the Word and the Spirit. Acts 1:8 – Jesus’ last words to the disciples before his ascension But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” But they didn’t go, they weren’t witnesses to all the earth. Whether it was from fear, timidity, lack of vision, or just their own ethnocentricity, they chose only to witness to those in their own community. So, what did God do? God allowed great persecution to come upon them which caused them to scatter into other areas, reaching other nations. Just like when Jonah refused to go to Nineveh and God caught him up in a great fish when he was trying to run away, God will accomplish His will despite us. We can see throughout history, both in the Bible and in more recent history, God moves his people by whatever means, famine, war, persecution, migration so that His people might be a witness to others so that His name would be declared among the nations. The question is, how is God moving us now? How does God want us to reach the nations now? How will He be glorified now? How will His name be declared among the nations? John Piper says, “Go, Send, or Disobey.” During a time when borders are closed and travel is restricted, going is near impossible for most of us. So, unless we want to disobey, we must send. And how do we send? By giving. The strategy of our global missions office is to equip and empower indigenous churches so that they might reach the unreached around them. So while at this time you and I may not be able to go to, say the unreached people of the Uighur in Northern China, we can help our brothers and sisters in mainland China, pray for them that God would give them a heart for the lost Uighur people, pray that God would show them a strategy and open doors for them, and we can equip them with our funds. That is how we can help, that is how we can obey God in the mandate that is most dear to his heart, during this time. We can pray and we can give. Riversidecogop.com